Jack and Jaffer at the SGC
by Neuropsych
Summary: (FINISHED) Jack brings Jaffer to the SGC for the first time
1. Default Chapter

Author's Note: This one will be a multiple chapter story. Nothing too long, or too serious. Just fun stuff.  
  
Again, I don't own Jack, only Jaffer  
  
~*~  
  
"Colonel O'Neill?"  
  
"Yes, Sir?"  
  
"Is that Jaffer?"  
  
Jack smiled, and reached down and scooped up the little black lab puppy and held him up so Hammond could get a better look at him.  
  
"Yes, Sir."  
  
"Why is he here?"  
  
"Because I can't leave him at home, Sir."  
  
"Why don't you take him up to the kennels?"  
  
"Because the other dogs are bigger than him, and Teal'c took Jack to Andrew's for the day, so he wouldn't have anyone there his own age to play with."  
  
That had to be the dumbest thing Jack O'Neill had ever said – which was saying a lot – but Hammond found himself nodding his understanding.  
  
"Well... what are you planning on doing with him?"  
  
"We're not scheduled to go off-world, Sir, so I was hoping I could just keep him with me today."  
  
"Here?"  
  
"Well... not right here in your office, but yes, Sir. Here on the base. He's small, Sir. He won't be any trouble."  
  
Hammond didn't seem so sure, but he really couldn't think of a good reason to say no. He shrugged.  
  
"Fine. But if he makes a mess, you clean it up."  
  
"Yes, Sir."  
  
Jack left Hammond's office still carrying Jaffer, but he set the puppy down once they got back out into the corridor. Jaffer looked up at Jack, as though asking him what they were going to do now, and Jack smiled.  
  
"Let's go see Daniel."  
  
They walked down the hall, the little black puppy strutting next to Jack, looking for all the world as though he was exactly where he belonged. They didn't make it down the hall to Daniel's office without being stopped a half a dozen times by Military personnel who just had to stop him and meet his new puppy. Everyone had seen the yellow lab that Teal'c had been given, but this was Jaffer's first trip to the SGC.  
  
"Colonel!"  
  
Jack stopped, and turned, giving Janet Fraiser a smile as she came up to him, looking down at Jaffer and smiling.  
  
"Hey, Doc."  
  
"Hello." She knelt down and Jaffer came right up to her, sniffing her happily and wagging his tail ferociously. "He looks just like Jack, doesn't he?"  
  
"Yup, just black instead of yellow."  
  
She picked the puppy up and cuddled him for a moment, resting her cheek against his soft black fur, then set him back down and stood up once more.  
  
"You'll have to bring him by so Cassie can see him, okay?"  
  
"I will, I promise. Better yet, why don't you see if she wants to spend the night next Friday? Carter's having some of the girls that she met at camp coming over to her house for the weekend, and I promised I'd bring Jaffer over to meet them – you know little girls and puppies. Cassie would probably have a good time."  
  
"Sounds good." Fraiser smiled again, "I'll find Sam and talk to her about it. Thank you, Colonel."  
  
"Any time. I know she was going to talk to you about it, anyways."  
  
Fraiser nodded, and headed back down the hall. She had a couple Marines in her infirmary that she needed to check on, but hadn't been able to resist stopping and meeting Jack's new puppy. Maybe it wasn't just little girls and puppies.  
  
~*~  
  
"Hey, Daniel. Whatcha doing?"  
  
Daniel had several pictures laid out on his desk, each of them being held down with small rocks at the corners, and he looked up from the pictures when he heard O'Neill come in.  
  
"Hi, Jack. I'm trying to translate this section of script from the obelisk from J-23P12. It's just a... why is Jaffer here?"  
  
The little puppy heard his name and interpreted that as an invitation to come in, and he launched himself happily into Daniel's office, coming over to the archeologist's desk and looking up at him, waiting impatiently to be petted.  
  
"He's spending the day with me."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Daniel reached down and picked the little black lab up and set him on his lap, but Jaffer jumped up onto Daniel's desk where he had a better view of what was going on.  
  
"Don't let him fall," Jack warned, instantly going into paranoid dog owner mode.  
  
"I won't." Daniel said, reaching over and picking the puppy up again, and putting him back on his lap. Jaffer squirmed free, his eyes on the rocks that Daniel had holding down the various photos. Jack knew that look well.  
  
"Daniel... you might-"  
  
Jaffer snatched up one of the smaller rocks in his mouth.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Jaffer! Drop it!"  
  
Jaffer didn't drop it. He swallowed it as quickly as he could before Jack could take it from him, knowing that if Jack didn't want him to eat it, then it had to be good.  
  
"Jack!" Daniel looked at the puppy in disbelief. Jaffer didn't even bat an eye. He looked at the other rocks, but Daniel had hold of him, now, and he couldn't get to them. "He ate my artifact."  
  
"Relax, Daniel."  
  
"That thing is probably a million years old, Jack. It had a fossil on it of some creature that I didn't even get a chance to study, and your dog ate it! You want me to relax?"  
  
"You can have it back in a couple days. Believe me, I know." Oh, did Jack know.  
  
"What?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"I want my artifact back, Jack."  
  
"I'm not going to rip him open and pull it out, Daniel," O'Neill said, reaching over and taking Jaffer from Daniel before the archeologist could decide to put his hand down the puppy's throat and look for his rock. Jaffer licked Jack's face happily. "You can have it in a couple days. Probably close to the same time I'll get my dad's Zippo."  
  
"I'd better."  
  
Jack looked down at Jaffer, who looked up at him, unrepentant.  
  
"Maybe we should let Daniel get back to work, huh, Jaffer? I'll bet Sam would love to see us. And she probably won't yell at us." Cradling his puppy protectively in his arms, Jack left Daniel's office before they could get into any more trouble.  
  
~*~ 


	2. 02

"Hey, Carter."  
  
Sam looked up from her laptop at the sound of Jack's voice. She smiled when she saw him, then realized that Jaffer was standing next to O'Neill, and her smile widened.  
  
"What's he doing here, Jack?" Sam asked, putting her hand down close to the floor and gesturing for Jaffer to come over and get some loving. The puppy ran in excitedly and over to her chair and Carter scooped him up into her lap with one hand as she closed her laptop with the other. She was well aware what damage Jaffer could do, and was making sure there was nothing close to the edge of her desk that the puppy might get into.  
  
"He's hanging out with me today." Jack closed the door behind him, and walked over and sat on the other edge of her desk, watching as she got some serious licking and sniffing from Jaffer. Sam was Jaffer's favorite person after Jack. Which was only fair, since she was Jack's favorite person, too.  
  
"General Hammond knows?"  
  
"Uh huh."  
  
"And he doesn't care?"  
  
"He didn't say no."  
  
"What are you going to do with him?"  
  
"We'll hang out in my office, and do paperwork."  
  
"You might get more done if you let him do it."  
  
"Cute." Jack grinned, and reached down and picked up one of Carter's little gadgets off her desk. One of the little expensive ones that had been the first thing she'd made sure was out of Jaffer's range. He examined it idly as Jaffer watched with interest from Sam's lap, where she was holding him firmly. "I'll have you know that I'm very close to having all my paperwork done."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Well... 'close' is a unit of time, right, Carter? And time's all relative. So, I'm relatively very close to having all my paperwork done."  
  
"Uh huh. Is that how you're going to explai-"  
  
Jack dropped the gadget, and Sam closed her eyes when she heard the thing hit the floor with a clattering noise that was a sure sign it was broken.  
  
"Sorry about that." Jack said, bending down and gathering up the pieces and setting them back down on her desk.  
  
"Why don't you guys go visit Daniel?" Sam asked, clutching Jaffer even tighter when the puppy saw Jack set the pieces on the desk. They were definitely interesting! And probably delicious.  
  
"We did. Jaffer ate one of his rocks."  
  
"Shouldn't you take him to the vet?"  
  
"Nah. It wasn't a big one. She'd just tell me to wait a couple days and if it didn't reappear to come back."  
  
"The voice of experience talking?"  
  
"Oh yeah."  
  
Jack reached for another one of Sam's doohickeys, and Sam reached out with her free hand and touched his, stopping him.  
  
"Um... let's go get something to eat, shall we?"  
  
"It's 9:30, Carter."  
  
"I didn't have much breakfast." She lied.  
  
"Okay."  
  
Carter handed Jaffer over to Jack – mainly just to keep his hands full – and stood up, giving her broken gadget a last mournful look before heading for the door.  
  
"I saw Fraiser a little bit ago," Jack told her as they left her office and he put Jaffer down so the puppy could walk beside him.  
  
"Don't you have a leash for him?" Sam asked, looking down at Jaffer, who was walking close to Jack, but was looking around him with interest.  
  
"Of course I do."  
  
"Shouldn't you be using it? He's not really all that good at staying close, is he?"  
  
"He chewed it up last night, and I haven't had a chance to get him a new one, yet."  
  
Sam shook her head and hid her smile, and Jack scowled.  
  
"We'll go get one today," he said. "The pet store isn't open until 10."  
  
"You were saying something about seeing Janet?" Sam reminded him.  
  
"Yeah. She's going to talk to you about having Cassie spend the night with you and the girls next weekend."  
  
"Good. I should go set that up now. She has a meeting later today, and I probably won't have a chance to see her after that."  
  
"What about getting something to eat?"  
  
"I'll meet you there," Sam told him, smiling as she turned at an intersecting corridor.  
  
Jack reached down and caught up Jaffer before he could follow her, and cuddled his puppy as the two of them watched her go.  
  
"C'mon Jaffer," Jack told him, tucking him under his arm. "We'll get something to eat, and THEN we'll go do our paperwork." 


	3. 03

"Oh, Jack, he's adorable!"  
  
O'Neill preened. He and Jaffer were in the commissary, and Jack had Jaffer in one hand and a tray in the other. A tray that he was trying to fill with food even though he didn't have any more hands free, and the young woman behind the counter – who wasn't in the Military and didn't have to call O'Neill 'sir' – had just gotten her first look at his new puppy.  
  
"You named him Jaffer?"  
  
"Yup." He set the tray down, and held Jaffer up a little more so she could get a better look.  
  
"He's so cute." She smiled. "Should he be in here, though?"  
  
"Sure. He's a guard dog in training, you know? The security dogs are allowed down here, right?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"There you have it." Jack said, reasonably.  
  
She shrugged. That made as much sense as anything, she supposed. Besides, she wasn't going to kick the little fellow out before he could have something to eat! He was looking at her with those adorable brown eyes that plainly told her he was practically starving to death.  
  
"You hold him, and I'll help you with your tray, okay?" As much as she wanted to hold the puppy, she was serving food, and that just wasn't sanitary.  
  
"Thanks, Misty." Jack handed her his tray and told her what he wanted, and she loaded it up. Then she went that much further and carried the tray out to a table for him.  
  
There was far more food than Jack and Jaffer could actually eat, but Carter had said she was going to join them, so O'Neill had picked up something for her as well. He'd already had breakfast, but was never above a mid morning snack, so his tray was filled with more 'junk' food than actual healthy food.  
  
It was a little early for pie, but he had some, anyways, along with a plate of meat and cheese slices that he could put on crackers. Reminded that Sam was going to join him, and not wanting to get lectured on eating habits this early in the morning, Jack had also gotten himself a bowl of soup. He wasn't going to eat it, but it was a decoy so she'd think he was eating properly.  
  
He'd gotten enough for Sam, as well, in case she wanted to share what he was eating, but since she hadn't had breakfast, he'd also grabbed up a couple of breakfast sandwiches – sausage, egg and cheese on an English muffin. There was also a container of chicken nuggets that he figured were about perfect for Jaffer to eat since there weren't any bones, and they weren't so big that Jack would have to worry about him choking on them.  
  
The puppy squirmed in Jack's lap when he saw all the food in front of him, but Jack was getting pretty good at holding Jaffer still, and with one hand he stilled the puppy, while the other tapped him on the nose.  
  
"You have to wait, little man." Jack said wagging his finger at him. Jaffer's eyes followed the finger for a moment, and then went back to the food. He didn't want to wait, but if he had to, he wasn't going to let Jack forget what exactly he wanted.  
  
"Aw, give him a nugget, Colonel."  
  
Jack turned and saw that he and Jaffer were pretty much the center of attention in the commissary. There were a half dozen Marines watching the exchange, and at least that many Air Force personnel as well. All were obviously rooting for the puppy. Jaffer yapped, as if he agreed, and Jack shook his head and picked up a nugget and held it in front the little lab.  
  
The little teeth flashed and the nugget disappeared in a heartbeat.  
  
"Watch my fingers, Jaffer." Jack murmured to his puppy. "Otherwise you don't get any more."  
  
Jaffer's eyes grinned at him, and Jack handed over another nugget, which vanished as fast as the first. Jaffer wasn't worried about Jack's fingers. Greediness overcame good manners fairly quickly, and Jack found he had to hold Jaffer in both hands to keep the little lab from getting at the tray of food.  
  
"Don't you ever feed him?"  
  
Jack looked up and saw that Sam and Fraiser had both come in the room, and the two women were watching the struggle with smiles on their faces.  
  
"He had breakfast."  
  
"And Daniel's rock." Sam reminded him.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Can I hold him, Colonel?" Fraiser asked, reaching out and taking Jaffer from Jack, who hadn't even had a chance to say yes. The puppy squirmed. Not that he didn't like to be held, because he loved attention almost more than anything, but Fraiser wasn't as close to that tray of nuggets as Jack was, and he didn't want to be separated from his food. He jumped out of Fraiser's arms, and landed on the table. Right on the edge of the tray that held all the food.  
  
O'Neill hadn't placed the tray completely on the surface of the table – or else the struggle with the greedy puppy had moved it a bit – because when Jaffer landed on it, there was a portion that was hanging over, and this was the part that the lab landed on with most of his weight. The tray tipped violently, and nuggets and pie went flying. The plate of meat and cheese flew through the air, and Sam's breakfast sandwiches landed in Jack's lap. Along with Jaffer and the bowl of soup.  
  
Jack yelped, but not as loudly as Jaffer. Neither of them were burned – the soup honestly wasn't that hot – but Jaffer had been startled and he was still a baby. So he did the first thing that came to mind, and that was to make sure everyone in the room knew he was in agony, so he wouldn't get in trouble. Ki-yi-ing as though a sharp blade had just flayed him, the puppy cried his heart out, and Jack – who was concerned that he'd managed to get burned – held him with both hands as he stood up quickly. And slipped on the pie that was on the floor behind him.  
  
Jaffer went flying as O'Neill went down. 


	4. 04

"Colonel?"  
  
Jack opened his eyes and found himself looking up at the ceiling, and a handful of concerned faces. Chief among these were Fraiser and Carter. The rest were Marines and Air Force personnel. There was one face conspicuously missing, and Jack noticed it instantly.  
  
"Jaffer?"  
  
"He's fine. Ibanez caught him."  
  
"It was a good catch, too," Carter assured him, smiling down at him worriedly. "Considering he's covered in clam chowder."  
  
O'Neill sat up, but Fraiser wouldn't let him get to his feet.  
  
"Stay still for a minute, Colonel. I want to check your head."  
  
"I'm fine, Doc." If sitting in the middle of a pile of mashed up breakfast foods and pie and covered with a lap full of clam chowder could be considered fine.  
  
"I'll be the judge of that." She touched the back of his head and Jack winced despite his best intentions not to. "Hurt?" Fraiser asked him, catching the wince.  
  
"No."  
  
She gave him a look that told him she didn't believe him, and motioned for two of the Marines standing by to help him to his feet.  
  
"Help the Colonel to the infirmary."  
  
"I don't need to-"  
  
"You'll go to the infirmary where I can check your head to make sure you didn't crack it open, Colonel."  
  
"I'm not bleeding, am I?"  
  
"That doesn't mean anything. Don't argue with me, or I'll call General Hammond."  
  
O'Neill scowled, and looked over at the Airman that was holding Jaffer. The man was smeared with clam chowder, but Jaffer was doing his level best to lick him clean. Which was making it difficult to hold him.  
  
"I'll take him, Ibanez." Jack said, reaching over.  
  
"Sam can carry him."  
  
"But-"  
  
"Do you want to risk dropping him?"  
  
"I'm not hurt, Doc."  
  
"You hit your head pretty hard, Colonel," Carter told him. She'd seen the impact when he'd hit the chair behind him, and was really surprised he wasn't bleeding.  
  
There was no use arguing when the two of them were ganging up on him, and Jack knew it. He scowled again, and shook off the Marines, telling them he was okay. They nodded, and stepped back, ignoring Fraiser's scowl, and Sam reached over and took Jaffer from the Airman.  
  
"Thanks, Ibanez," Jack said, truly grateful to the man for catching his baby.  
  
"Anytime, Sir."  
  
"He's really a mess," Sam commented as the three of them walked down the corridor towards the infirmary. She was holding the puppy at a distance, not wanting to smear herself with his chowder mess, and Jaffer was squirming. He didn't like being held like that. Not even by his second favorite person in the world.  
  
"Here, Sam." Jack reached over and took the puppy, and cradled him against his chest, ignoring the clam chowder. He was already covered in the stuff, so a little more wasn't going to hurt. Besides, there was more chance of Jaffer slipping out of Carter's hands than Jack dropping him because of any lingering head injury.  
  
"You are a mess, aren't you?" Jack told his puppy, smiling despite his irritation at going to the infirmary. Jaffer's fuzzy black fur was flattened with chowder and smeared white in more places than not.  
  
"He's not the only one," Fraiser said, reaching out and pulling a piece of egg out of O'Neill's collar. He had food all over him, and was definitely going to need to shower and change. But not until she'd had a chance to check him out.  
  
They entered the infirmary and Fraiser reached over and took Jaffer from Jack.  
  
"I don't want him on my beds."  
  
"He's not-"  
  
"Sam? Hold him, please?"  
  
Carter took him again, but this time cuddled him so Jack wouldn't worry about her dropping him and would do what Janet asked without so much fuss.  
  
Fraiser ran O'Neill through a quick series of tests, mostly just checking to make sure his eyes were focusing properly. He passed them all, but she was worried about the tenderness he demonstrated when she touched his head, so she got out an icepack and handed it to him, wrapped in a towel.  
  
"Use that for the next twenty minutes."  
  
"Here?"  
  
"If I let you leave, will you still use it?"  
  
"If you let me leave."  
  
"Fine. Go to your office and find something quiet to work on for the next twenty minutes. Better yet, don't do anything. Just keep that to your head. Then you'd better get you and Jaffer cleaned up."  
  
"Will do."  
  
Eager to make his escape, Jack took his puppy back, and with Jaffer tucked under one arm, and the ice pack in the other, he left before Janet could change her mind.  
  
Sam and Fraiser watched the two of them leave. Jack's entire back and rear were covered with pie and pieces of meat and cheese, and Fraiser wondered how one little puppy could have caused such a mess.  
  
~*~  
  
Jack didn't go to his office. He went to the locker room, so he could get himself and Jaffer cleaned up. Closing the door tightly behind him when he entered, he set the black lab down on the floor and stripped out of his uniform. Jaffer watched him with interest, and O'Neill dropped his shirt on the puppy, covering him up to keep him occupied while he got his boots and pants off. Since escaping from the shirt (or blanket, or towel, or whatever it was O'Neill was using at that particular time) was one of Jaffer's favorite games, it worked like a charm, and by the time Jack was ready to get into the shower, his puppy had his head thoroughly stuck in the arm of Jack's shirt.  
  
"C'mere you little imp." Jack scooped up Jaffer, pulled the shirt off his head, and headed for the shower, the chowder smeared dog cradled carefully against his chest.  
  
Fifteen minutes later, the two of them were clean again, and Jack was dressed in a clean uniform and heading to his office with Jaffer still wrapped in a towel to protect his uniform from getting any wetter than it already was. He sat down on the rarely used sofa and dried Jaffer off, roughly rubbing the towel all over the fuzzy body (which now smelled like Jack's favorite brand of shampoo).  
  
Jaffer attacked the towel every time it came close to his nose, but he loved the attention and Jack knew it. The two of them wrestled over the towel for a while, then Jack remembered that he was supposed to be icing his head, and he reached for the ice pack. It wasn't very icy by this time, but he dutifully held it against the bump on the back of his head, and leaned back against the sofa so it would be pinned between his head and the back of the sofa and would leave his hands free to hold Jaffer.  
  
Jaffer, however, was ready to calm down for a while. He climbed up O'Neill's chest as far as he could, and flopped down on him, counting on Jack to hold him in his position – which he did, of course. With the little wet cold nose stuck against his neck right under his jaw, Jack cuddled his puppy, smoothing the black fuzz into a semblance of order while Jaffer dozed off. 


	5. 05

Sam knocked on the door a short while after Jaffer fell asleep, and opened it, peeking in. Jack smiled when he saw her, and gestured with his chin for her to come on in. She did so, smiling as she walked across the room and sat down on the sofa next to O'Neill.  
  
"Wore him out, did you?"  
  
"The shower does it to him every time."  
  
"You gave him a shower?"  
  
"He showered with me when I took mine."  
  
Carter reached out and touched Jack's hair, which was still damp. She'd seen that he was clean, but just assumed that he'd changed clothes.  
  
"How do you do it without dropping him?"  
  
"He likes the shower. He just holds still and puts his head up against the spray. It's fun to watch."  
  
"Sounds like it."  
  
"Want to watch sometime?" Jack asked her, his eyes smiling as cheerfully as Jaffer's usually did. And with that same mischievous sparkle.  
  
"Why didn't you invite me in the infirmary?"  
  
Jack laughed, and reached out with his free hand and touched her cheek for just a moment. They tried not to show too much affection at work – mainly it was habit not to – but there were times when he just had to touch her. Usually when she said something cute like that.  
  
"Shouldn't you be in your lab working on one of your doohickeys?"  
  
"Yeah." She would have been if he hadn't dropped it and broken it, but Carter didn't tell him that. "But I thought I'd stop in and see how you two were doing."  
  
"We're fine."  
  
"Head hurt?"  
  
"Nope." Well, yeah, it did a little. But he wasn't going to tell her that. For all Jack knew, Fraiser had sent Sam down to check on him.  
  
"Need anything?"  
  
"Nah. I'm going to do my paperwork."  
  
"Uh huh."  
  
"I am."  
  
"Holding him?"  
  
"Nah. He'll sleep for a while, probably. Which will give me time."  
  
"Uh huh."  
  
"Are you sure you don't have some doohickey you should be working on?"  
  
Sam laughed, and leaned over and kissed... Jaffer. Gently, so she wouldn't wake him.  
  
"Don't I get one?" Jack asked as she started to stand up.  
  
She kissed him softly, and ran her fingers through his damp hair.  
  
"What are you doing tonight?"  
  
"Whatever you are."  
  
"Good answer."  
  
She grinned and left his office, figuring that she might as well go see if her 'doohickey' was salvageable.  
  
~*~  
  
Jack smiled as she left, and looked down at Jaffer. The puppy was still out like a light. He picked him up gently and place him on the sofa next to him, waited a moment to make sure the movement didn't wake him up, then stood up and went over to his desk. There was a ton of paperwork waiting for him. He had an IN box and an OUT box like everyone else, but they were both filled with IN box stuff. He sat down and reached for the first paper, looking at it. It was a requisition form that should have been filled out a week before. Especially considering the stuff he'd requisitioned was stuff they'd already gotten from Supply. Sighing, Jack pulled a pen from his desk, and put his name in the top space.  
  
Then he looked over at Jaffer again. Yup, still sleeping. Jack put his rank down in the next space. And looked over at Jaffer. Still asleep? Yup. His serial number came next, and he put that in. And looked over at Jaffer, who was still dozing peacefully. Damn. Jack reached into his desk and pulled out a clean piece of paper and balled it up. Then threw it at Jaffer, hitting the puppy right on the top of the head. The brown eyes opened, but only for a moment, then they closed again. Jack grabbed another piece of paper and repeated the process, tossing it over at Jaffer and hitting him again. The eyes opened again, and the puppy yawned hugely as he lifted his head and looked around to see what was going on.  
  
His eyes caught Jack sitting at his desk, and the tail wagged. There was his favorite person! O'Neill smiled and put the requisition paper back in his IN box.  
  
"You awake, little man?" Jack asked. "That wasn't a very long nap."  
  
Jaffer made a controlled fall off the sofa and came over to Jack's desk, his tail wagging furiously, and O'Neill reached down and picked him up and cuddled him. He couldn't do any paperwork with Jaffer awake, now could he? Of course not. Who'd keep the puppy out of trouble?  
  
"Let's go see what's going on on the base, shall we?" Jack said, standing up and setting Jaffer down on the floor. The puppy thought this was a fine idea, and followed Jack willingly as the Colonel headed for the door. Besides, Jack could use a cup of coffee. Daniel probably had some made. 


	6. 06

Jack and Jaffer didn't make it very far down the hall before Jack heard someone calling his name. He stopped and turned, and saw Daniel coming towards him.  
  
"Hey, Jack. How's the head?"  
  
"How'd you hear about that?"  
  
"Janet told me."  
  
"When?"  
  
"When she came to my office to see my newest artifact."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Impressive?"  
  
"She didn't get to see it. I told her she had to wait for a couple days." He looked pointedly down at Jaffer, who was wandering away as the two men stopped and conversed.  
  
"The little rock?"  
  
"It's not a rock, it's a fossil."  
  
"Which is... a little picture of a dead something stuck in a rock, if I'm not mistaken?"  
  
"Well... technically." Daniel scowled. He hated it when Jack was right.  
  
"I'm sure the picture won't rub off, Daniel."  
  
That wasn't something the archeologist even wanted to think of.  
  
"So?"  
  
"So?"  
  
"How's the head? I heard you bumped it pretty good."  
  
"The head is fine, thank you." It was Jack's turn to scowl. "Do you have any coffee made? I-"  
  
They were interrupted by a commotion at the end of the hall.  
  
Hammond had been walking down the corridor. Well aware that he outranked everyone he was going to run across, the General had a habit of reading his reports while he was walking, knowing that everyone else would move so he really didn't need to pay all that much attention to where he was going. As long as he didn't run into walls, he'd be fine. And his peripheral vision was god enough to keep that from happening. What the older man hadn't counted on, however, was Jaffer.  
  
Jaffer didn't know anything about rank. He didn't know that when a superior officer was walking down the hall reading a report and drinking a cup of coffee, it was a good idea to move out of the way. What he did know was that something smelled interesting down the corridor, and that even though Jack was stopped to talk to his friend, Jaffer was more than willing to do a little exploring on his own.  
  
Hammond tripped over the puppy. He didn't fall, which was only because he threw out his hands to regain his balance when he got tangled with Jaffer. Of course, his report went flying, and his coffee was spilled. All over himself, his report and Jaffer. The little black lab had been startled when he'd been tripped over and had let out a yelp. When the hot coffee hit his rump, he let out a squeal that escalated quickly into a series of ki-yi-ing and he high-tailed it back down the corridor to Jack, who was just looking down the hall to see what was happening. The puppy came at him full speed, and stopped too late. He crashed into Jack's leg, which made him cry all that much louder, and Jack scooped him up, worriedly.  
  
"Colonel!"  
  
"Oh, boy." Daniel wasn't actually in the Military, but he knew that yell fairly well, and drew himself up a little straighter. Not necessarily at attention, but something close to it. Jack came to attention as well – as close as he could since he had a handful of coffee-drenched puppy.  
  
"Yes, Sir?"  
  
Hammond had coffee all over the front of his shirt, and the papers he picked up off the floor were just as wet as Jaffer's fuzzy black hide. Jack thought he could see steam coming out Hammond's ears as the older man came over.  
  
"Don't you have a leash for him?"  
  
"Yes, Sir."  
  
"Why aren't you using it?"  
  
"He chewed it up, Sir."  
  
"I suggest you get another one." He stopped, and then shook his head. "No. Belay that. I don't suggest, I ORDER you to go get him a new one."  
  
"Yes, Sir."  
  
"How's the head?"  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"I jut came from the commissary, Colonel, where I heard all about your... accident."  
  
"It wasn't my fault, Sir."  
  
"So I've been told." Hammond looked at Jaffer, who had tucked his little black nose into Jack's armpit and was still whining softly. The General sighed, but he was just as soft-hearted as anyone when it came to puppies. "Is he okay?"  
  
"He's tougher than he looks, Sir," O'Neill said.  
  
"He smells good," Daniel said, trying to lighten the mood a little. "Is that a Columbian roast, General?"  
  
Hammond glared at Daniel. "It was. And just for that, Doctor Jackson, you can drive Colonel O'Neill and his... dog... to the pet store to get him a leash."  
  
"Drive him, Sir?" Daniel looked at Jack, wondering what was wrong with the Colonel's truck.  
  
"Doctor Fraiser informs me that O'Neill has a recent head injury. We don't want to risk him blacking out in traffic or anything, do we?"  
  
"Um...well actually, General, I have some translations that I was... um... and a couple of different artifacts that..." Daniel sighed. "I'll be happy to drive them."  
  
"Good." Hammond reached out and touched the wet fur, and Jaffer poked his head out of Jack's armpit and looked over at the General with his mournful eyes. "You might want to get him dried off, first, Colonel. It's pretty cold out."  
  
"We will, Sir."  
  
Hammond nodded, and left the three of them standing in the hall, and walked back towards his office, shaking his reports to try and get the coffee off them.  
  
"We?" Daniel asked.  
  
"You heard him. I have a head injury, Daniel." Jack said, his brown eyes shining with good humor. "You wouldn't want me to black out while I'm washing that fine Columbian roast coffee out of his fur, now would you?"  
  
"Anyone ever tell you that you're annoying sometimes, Jack?" Daniel complained, knowing that it wasn't going to do him any good to try and return to his office and get any work done.  
  
"Oh, once or twice." 


	7. 07

"Just for the record, I think this is a very bad idea."  
  
"Relax, Daniel. You heard Hammond. We're supposed to get him cleaned off and dried off before we go get him a leash."  
  
"He didn't say anything about doing the cleaning in the infirmary sink."  
  
The two of them had snuck Jaffer into the infirmary after making sure that Fraiser was nowhere to be seen.  
  
"He won't fit in the sinks in the bathrooms or the locker room, and we can't clean a dog in the kitchen sinks. It wouldn't be sanitary." Jack said, reasonably. "That leaves this one."  
  
"Uh huh. You realize Janet will kill all three of us if she catches us?"  
  
"We're done. Hand me a towel."  
  
It hadn't taken all that much to rinse the coffee out of the jet-black fur. Luckily, Hammond wasn't a cream and sugar kind of guy, so it wasn't a sticky mess, and Jaffer didn't seem to have taken any lasting harm from having the hot coffee spilled on him. Jack couldn't see any red skin that might signify a burn, but he thought he might have it checked later, anyways. Better safe than sorry when it came to Jaffer, after all.  
  
Daniel handed Jack one of the big fluffy towels that Fraiser and her medical staff used for drying their hands after washing them before surgeries, and O'Neill picked Jaffer out of the sink and wrapped him in it and started drying him off.  
  
"Rinse the sink out, Dani-"  
  
"What are you two doing in here?"  
  
Both of them froze when they heard Fraiser's voice behind them, and they looked over at each other. Jack bundled Jaffer completely up in the towel and handed him over to Daniel, then turned and stepped slightly in front of the archeologist as Daniel turned around, too, hiding the evidence.  
  
"Colonel?" Fraiser was obviously waiting for an answer, and was looking at the two of them suspiciously. Of course, they both had identical guilty looks on their faces, which didn't help.  
  
"Um..." Jack took a quick step forward, taking Fraiser's elbow and turning her slightly away from Daniel. "My head is hurting a little, so I... thought I'd get another ice pack."  
  
"In my sink?" Fraiser wasn't buying that.  
  
"My hands were dirty."  
  
Daniel had opened his shirt and stuffed the towel-wrapped puppy inside, with only the little black nose sticking out, and had headed for the door. Jaffer didn't appreciate the sudden close quarters, or being treated like a piece of baggage and was squirming inside the archeologist's shirt, emitting a high-pitched growl that caught Janet's attention.  
  
"What was that?" She asked, looking at Daniel's retreating back.  
  
"He's probably just hungry," Jack told her. "You know how Daniel is. Never eating, always working."  
  
"Colonel..." Fraiser wasn't enjoying this. She knew something was going on, and wanted to know what it was. There was no way O'Neill was here for an ice pack. Then she realized someone was missing. "Where's Jaffer?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously once more.  
  
"He's around."  
  
"You lost him?"  
  
"Of course not."  
  
"What's going on, Colonel?" It was clear from her tone of voice that she knew he was up to something. Her arms crossed in a manner that told him he'd better come up with something convincing, but Jack didn't have a clue what it could be.  
  
"I can't tell you, Doc."  
  
"Can't?"  
  
"It's better you don't know." Boy, was that a fact! "I'd... better go make sure Daniel gets something to eat." He turned and headed for the door.  
  
"What about your ice pack?"  
  
"I'll come back for it."  
  
"Colonel!"  
  
He almost ran into Sam, who was walking into the infirmary just then, and Carter gestured over her shoulder, obviously confused. "Sir, I just saw Daniel in the hall. Why's he carrying Jaf-?"  
  
"He looks pretty hungry, huh, Carter?" Jack asked, hustling past her. "I've gotta go... get him something to eat. I'll see you two later."  
  
Sam watched him go, and Fraiser came over to the door as well. The two of them watched as Daniel and Jack scurried away, looking back over their shoulders occasionally as if to make sure they weren't being followed.  
  
"What was that all about?" Carter asked.  
  
Fraiser threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "I don't have a clue, Sam. I'd say your boyfriend hit his head a little harder than we first thought, except that he always acts like that."  
  
~*~  
  
"Do you know how mad she would have been at us?" Daniel asked as they turned the corner and he fished Jaffer out of his shirt and handed the puppy over to Jack.  
  
"Oh yeah." Jack took Jaffer and held him up, checking him out and making sure that he hadn't taken any harm being stuffed into Daniel's shirt. Jaffer looked positively rumpled, but the eyes were grinning happily, and Jack couldn't help but grin back.  
  
"What did you tell her?"  
  
"Nothing," Jack assured him. "But we might want to avoid the infirmary for a while."  
  
Yeah, it didn't take a genius to figure that one out, Daniel thought.  
  
"Is he dry enough to go outside?"  
  
"How should I know?" Jack pulled Jaffer from the towel and ran his fingers through the black fuzz. The puppy squirmed, but it wasn't the 'put me down I don't like being held like this' squirming. It was just his way of telling Jack he was enjoying this game. "He should be okay."  
  
"You can always put him in your shirt."  
  
"True." 


	8. 08

"Hey, Doc."  
  
"Colonel O'Neill?" Dr. Ray looked at the puppy in Jack's arms. Jaffer wasn't bleeding as near as she could tell, and he wasn't ki-yi-ing, and Jack looked fairly calm. "Do we have an appointment I don't know about?"  
  
"Nah. My boss spilled some coffee on Jaffer, though, and I thought it might not be a bad idea to have him checked out. You know, just in case? If you have a minute?"  
  
She smiled, knowingly, and reached for the puppy. Jack O'Neill had only been to her office a few times, but Monica Ray was well aware that he was about the most nervous pet owner she'd ever met. If Jaffer so much as issued a peep in distress, O'Neill was there, hovering and cooing him. It was kind of cute, since he looked so completely capable of handling every other situation. Just nothing with Jaffer involved.  
  
"Who's your friend?" She asked as she set Jaffer on the receptionist's counter, and ran her fingers through the black lab's fuzzy fur. Jaffer licked her hand every time it got close to his face.  
  
"Daniel Jackson. We work together."  
  
"Are you in the military, Mr. Jackson?" She asked. His hair was a little longer than most military men were allowed to wear it, but what did she know?  
  
"No. I'm an archeologist." Daniel said, smiling a greeting since her hands were full of puppy. "Speaking of which, Jaffer ate one of my fossils. Anyway I can get it back?"  
  
Monica looked at Jack, who held his index finger and thumb a small distance apart to tell her about how big the fossil was.  
  
"Watch for it in a couple of days, Mr. Jackson. It should pass fairly easily."  
  
Daniel scowled.  
  
"That's what I told him."  
  
"Jack knows better than anyone," She agreed. Boy, did he ever know! And he was still learning what was safe and what wasn't. "He looks fine, Jack. I don't see any redness on his skin, and he doesn't seem to be in any distress."  
  
"Thanks, Doc." Jack took Jaffer back, and cuddled him. "It never hurts to be sure, right?"  
  
"Right."  
  
~*~  
  
They arrive back at the SGC well after lunchtime. The visit to the vet hadn't taken all that long, but to take Jaffer to his regular vet had meant going almost all the way to O'Neill's, which wasn't all that much on the way to the pet store. Then, once Monica Ray had cleared Jaffer and announced him fit to be taken home, they'd grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then it was off to the pet store; where they'd spent well over an hour. It wasn't just a matter of picking out a leash – although that had taken Jack quite a while – they also had to get stuff.  
  
Jack decided if he was going to have Jaffer in his office, he might as well have a food dish, and a water dish there, and he HAD to have at least one chew toy, and a couple chew bones, and a ball, and some puppy training pads, since they were still working on the house breaking thing. Then, once Jack had Daniel loaded down with all of these absolutely necessary items; they'd started the real shopping.  
  
They walked back through the corridors of the SGC drawing many looks. Not Jack and Daniel, because they looked exactly the same as they had when they'd left – minus the fact that Daniel was carrying a large bag of dog supplies and Jack had a twenty-five pound bag of puppy chow over his shoulder. Jaffer was drawing the attention. The little lab was strutting next to Jack, held in place with his brand new leash (A blue one that matched the brand new harness Jack had also decided to purchase). He was also sporting a puppy coat that proudly proclaimed him to be the World's Greatest Puppy, and was personalized with Jaffer's name on it. The puppy would grow out of it quickly, but Jack had decided that it was cold out, and his baby should be warm.  
  
Daniel helped Jack carry the stuff to his office, then beat a hasty retreat before O'Neill could suggest they do anything else. He'd paid his price for the coffee jab, as far as he was concerned, and it didn't look like Jack was going to pass out any time soon. Jack thanked Daniel for his help, then set his puppy on his desk and started taking his coat off him, not even noticing when Daniel closed the door behind him.  
  
~*~  
  
"Colonel?"  
  
"Sir?"  
  
Jack looked up at the knock on his door. He was sitting at his desk, once more trying to convince himself to do his paperwork, and was staring at the same requisition paper that he had been earlier. Jaffer was chewing contently on a rawhide bone thing, the rest of his toys scattered around him.  
  
"Busy?"  
  
"No, Sir. Come on in."  
  
Hammond walked in, and Jack saw he was accompanied by a Captain that O'Neill thought looked vaguely familiar, but didn't actually know.  
  
"This is Captain Larry Glenn. He's the officer in charge of the K-9 corps here on the base."  
  
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain." Jack said, offering his hand.  
  
"Likewise, Sir."  
  
"I've been discussing Jaffer with Captain Glenn, Jack. Jaffer and Jack, both, actually."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Well, I think if you're going to be bringing Jaffer to the base with you every day – and since Jack is always here with Teal'c - it might not be a bad idea for you and Teal'c to put your dogs in training. You never know when we might need extra help with K-9 security, and it would... keep them out of trouble. You know, give them someplace to run and expend some of that energy."  
  
Jack looked over at Jaffer, dubiously. The little black lab looked right back at him, still chewing the bone with his ferocious little teeth. "Isn't he a little young for that kind of thing?"  
  
"Not at all, Sir," Glenn assured O'Neill. He'd been pretty much ordered by Hammond to get Jack to agree to this idea, so the young Captain would do everything he could to assure Jack that it was a good idea. "Lots of the base dogs begin their training young. They learn best when they're young."  
  
"Jaffer's going to be spending a lot of time with kids," Jack said, thinking of Shawn mainly. "I don't really want to turn him into a killing machine..."  
  
"He's a lab, Sir. They're very good-natured dogs. You can't train that out of them unless you abuse them, and we'd never allow anything like that to happen. Not to any of the dogs on the base."  
  
"Will it hurt?"  
  
"No, Sir. Never."  
  
"I don't know, Sir..." Jack looked at Hammond, who was looking for all the world like it was the greatest idea he'd ever heard. "I've heard the K-9 Marines are pretty obsessed when it comes to their dogs. I wouldn't want Jaffer to get overwhelmed. Or spoiled."  
  
The Captain couldn't help but look at all the puppy items in the room, including a framed photo of Jack and Jaffer that was sitting on O'Neill's desk.  
  
"There's no way our Marines will spoil your puppy, Sir." It was obvious Jack was well on his way to doing that, already, and there wasn't a chance anyone else could do more than he was. "All the training will do is teach him what belongs on the base, and what doesn't. And he'll learn a few commands – sit, stay, heel – the usual ones."  
  
"Fetch?" Jack asked.  
  
"If you want, Sir."  
  
"Can you teach him to catch a Frisbee? Like those dogs on the TV do?"  
  
"I can try, Sir."  
  
"What do you think, Jack?" Hammond asked.  
  
O'Neill shrugged. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to give it a try, Sir. Of course, I can't speak for Teal'c. He might have other plans for Jack."  
  
"I'll discuss it with him when he comes back on the base."  
  
"Okay. When do you start?"  
  
"Tomorrow, Sir?" Glenn asked Hammond and Jack both.  
  
"Tomorrow is fine." Hammond said, clapping his hands together in a 'that's that' motion, and heading for the door.  
  
"Um... sure. Tomorrow is good." Jack still didn't look completely sure of the whole idea, but Hammond was practically rubbing his hands in glee.  
  
"Great, Sir. Do you know where the kennels are?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I'll be there when you come on-base in the morning. You can drop him off, and then pick him up when you leave."  
  
"Okay."  
  
The two men left Jack's office, and O'Neill shrugged and looked over at Jaffer, who hadn't stopped chewing his bone, even while his future had been decided.  
  
"I don't know little man," Jack said, smiling softly. "I wonder if Hammond even realized that if you're upstairs learning to be a guard dog, you're not going to be down here where you can keep everyone company?"  
  
~*~  
  
The End  
  
(of this tale....) 


End file.
